PMI: WHO Report On Tobacco Fails People Who Currently Smoke

Source from:  Yahoo Finance 07/31/2019

The WHO is missing major opportunity to help smokers by putting science and innovation at the core of public policy.

The following is a statement from PMI.

On July 26, the World Health Organization released a report on global tobacco use which urges governments to step up efforts to help smokers quit. There is no question that the best choice is never to start using cigarettes or nicotine-containing products or if someone has, they should quit altogether. By encouraging governments to double down on efforts to help men and women who smoke quit, the WHO takes an admirable stance. But the reality is that even with the best treatments available today, many people will not succeed. In any given year, about nine out of 10 men and women who are already smoking will continue to do so; in turn, their risk of smoking-related disease will continue to increase. We, as a society, cannot turn our backs on those people.

Surprisingly, this report, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, fails to acknowledge the robust science and innovation behind alternatives to smoking cigarettes. The WHO misses a critical scientific point: It is the burning of tobacco that produces the vast majority of the harmful chemicals that cause smoking-related diseases, not tobacco itself. Hundreds of millions of men and women who don’t quit stand to gain the most from less harmful alternatives to cigarettes. In fact, a global survey of 31,000 people in 31 countries found that 88 percent of respondents think smokers should have access to less harmful alternatives to cigarettes. PMI’s alternatives alone have already helped 8 million people abandon cigarettes entirely.

“The WHO is failing the 1 billion men and women around the world that continue to smoke by continuing to ignore the science behind better alternatives to cigarettes,” said Dr. Moira Gilchrist, Vice President of Strategic and Scientific Communications, Philip Morris International. “There is no question that scientifically substantiated smoke-free alternatives are better than cigarettes. The WHO is perfectly situated to encourage independent research and provide science-based recommendations to smokers. Instead they seem to be closing down dialogue on promising alternatives to continued smoking, choosing instead to focus solely on pharmaceutical industry products.”

In 1997, the UN Focal Point on Tobacco or Health recommended that “in order to assist smokers who are so heavily dependent that they cannot possibly stop smoking, every effort should be made to reduce the toxicity of existing tobacco products.” The same report also recommends that “the WHO is requested to consider the above recommendations in future policy-development activities, including the drafting of a framework convention on tobacco control.”

PMI heeded the call for reduced toxicity products and for more than 20 years has been working on developing and scientifically assessing less harmful alternatives to cigarettes that do not create smoke, because they do not combust. PMI’s scientific assessment program is inspired by the well-recognized practices of the pharmaceutical industry and in line with the draft guidance of the U.S. FDA for Modified Risk Tobacco Product (MRTP) Applications. Our scientific studies resulted in more than 340 references in peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and book chapters.

We encourage rigorous assessment of our scientific research, which is made transparently available for just that purpose. To date, there have been 73 independent studies and scientific reviews from universities and government research institutes in countries like Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. In general, the conclusions from these studies and reviews are in line with PMI’s own data.  Enditem